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IGHN S. EWEGHT AM} WE» MUS-EAL
CRITECESM ZN "‘FHE HARME‘JGL-Ek

Thesis for the Degree of M. A.
MICHIGAN STATE COLLEGE

Cecile Poilock Hoffman

1953

fHESlS

This is to certify that the

thesis entitled

JOHN S. NIGHT AND HIS MUSICAL
CRITICISM IN THE HARBINGER

presented by

Cecile Pollock Hoffman

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

M o A 0 degree in Eng]. 1 Sh

Major professor

Date November 21. 1950

 

0-169

 

JOHN S. DWIGHT AND HIS MUSICAL CRITICISM IN THE HARBINGER

By
CECILE POLLOCK W

A THESIS
Submitted. to the School of Graduate Studies of Michigan
State College Of Agriculture and Applied Science
in partial fulfillment of the requiranents
for the degree of

MASTER 03‘ KRIS

Department of English

Year 1950

THESIS

 

 

 

FOREWORD

In every great literary period in history, certain
writers of distinction are seized upon by the critics to
be considered. Succeeding generations follow suit, and
these same literary geniuses are re-considered. But,
surrounding great men of letters, are many lesser
luminaries whose contributions are important to the time
I in which they lived; and,thus, become worthy of subsequent
consideration. Such a man was John Sullivan Dwight - a
man whose steady influence for the cause of music in

education cannot be measured. His musical criticisms
today make interesting reading, because of both the
literary merit and their content. Hie musical reviews in

The Harbinger laid the foundation for his later signifi-

 

cant Journal g£_§u§ig, which for thirty years was the
outstanding publication or its kind in this country.

The Michigan State College Library has been most
cooperative in securing the necessary material for this
thesis. I want to acknowledge, also, the kindness of the
English staff of the College, particularly that of
Dr. Claude Newlin, and.Dr. Anders Orbeck.

CQPQH.

("13”! ”‘2'! ~'-' ‘
«11.. “a! 1: “it;

II
III:

IV

CONTENTS

ForewardOOOCOOOO...OO0.............00.0.0.0...C...

Biographical Sketchoeoeeouooceeeeeeoeeeeoeeooeeee.

The Harbinger: ItS raison d'etreeoeeeeeeeeeeeeeeo

The Musical Reviews

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Prologue...................................
Expostion of Musical Ideals................
Criticism of Performers and Performances...
Evaluation of Musical Compositions.........

EmortationOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOI.O

smary.........OOOOOOOOOOOOOOCOOOOOO...0..

BibliographyOOOOOCOOO0.0.0.0...OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

26
28
#2
55
72
80
81

JOHN S. DWIGHT
AND ' HIS
MUSICAL CRITICISM
IN
Tm HARBI NGER

CHAPTER I
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

To appreciate fully the writings of any author, it
is helpful to follow through his life and activities, for
therein lies the answer to many questions of style,
reasoning, philosophy and purpose. Environment bends the
personality, and the personality in turn molds events. The
personality of John S. Dwight is indelibly stamped on
cultural events of Boston during his long life span; and
his influence, spreading out from there, undoubtedly
affected events and destinies of which he was totally
unaware. However this may be, it appears now that he
accomplished.much through his persistent idealism; and
the dedication of his life to one high goal - - the full
realization of the best in music in America -‘- was
definitely instrumental in achieving universal acceptance
of music as a part of our educational curriculum. This
would be difficult, naturally, to measure. However, the
story of Dwight's life is demonstration enough of this
point.

To George Willis Cooke, who published a biography
in 1898, we are indebted for whatever information is
available on the life of Dwight. Since this publication,
no further notice seems to have been taken of hhm except
for brief entries in musical encyclopediae and biographical

dictionaries. And these entries base their information on

-1...

the biography of Dwight by G. W, Cooke, which seems complete
and.detailed and is sympathetically written. Appearing as it
did within a few years of the close of Dwight's life, it
seems sincere, authentic, and well documented with contemporary
opinions and side-lights.

Mr. Cooke dedicated the biography of John S. Dwight,

To the Harvard.Musioal Association with
which the subject of this biography was
intimately connected from the day of its
inception until his death, serving it in
every officigl capacity, being its
president for twenty years. . . with the
hape that it may help to indicate how
intimately the man, the association, and
the art they a ed tolserve were united
to each other.

James Russell Lowell, a friend and neighbor of Dwight's
for many years, immortalized him in his [ablg_£gg_0ritics with
a keen insight into his character and personality when he
wrote;

When Nature was shaping him, clay was not granted
For making so full sized a man as she wanted.

So, to fill out her model, a little she spared
From some finer-grained stuff for a woman prepared;
And she could not have hit a more excellent plan
For making him fully and perfectly man.

The success of her scheme gave her much delight
That she tried it again, shortly after, in Dwight:
Only, while she was kneading and shaping the clay,
She sang to her work in her sweet, childish way,
And found, when she'd put the last touch to his soul,

That the music had somehow got mixed up with the whole.2

1George Willis Cooke, John Sullivan Dwight. Brook Farmer,
Editor and Critic of’Music. A Biograph z, TBoston, 1898?

2James Russell Lowell, The Complete Poetical Works,

(Cambridge, 1924) p.135:

That Dwight's biographer, Cooke, held his subject
in high and affectionate regard is well expressed in his
preface when he says,

So important was Dwight's connection
with the develOpment of musical interest
and taste in Boston that it was desirable
some account of his work for music should
be given the public. His Journal of
Music was a pioneer in its chosen field,
and he made it an educational power in
securing a Just recognition of the
classics of music as an art. He was
intimately identified with almost every
movement made in behalf of music for
nearly a half-century in the city of his
birth, and the history of that art in
Boston cannot be written without frequent
use of his name. In his time everyone
looked to him for the right interpretation
of music, and.musicians trusted him as
sincerely as did the general public. His
work was therefore unique, and never
likely to be repeated on the part of any
interpreter of music. He was a fit man
for the time, that time when music was
securing its public, when musical culture
was finding its opportunity, and when a
man of literary skill was needed who
could.m3diate between the art and the
public 0

 

Distinguished.men often come from distinguished
families and J. S. Dwight had a fine heritage. A large
number of Judges, statesmen, authors, college presidents
and professors, as well as other men of prominence and
influence bearing the name Dwight are descendants of
Mr. John Dwight, one of the original setthrs of Dedham,

Massachusetts.”

3Ibid., p.xi.

“Ibide , p01.

The home environment often indicates a path of
thought and action for an individual. Dwight's father,
John, was a free thinker and a radical for his day. Human
affection to him was paramount and he refused to accept
what was unworthy of God and Love. Dwight's mother,

Mary Corey, found reading a pleasure, was fond of poetry

and had good literary Judgement. Aesthetic and artistic

in her nature, she had a remarkable appreciation of beauty,

and as to its character and quality showed fine discrimination.5

So we have a young man surrounded with free,
independent, intellectual parents - - his mother devoted to
the aesthetically beautiful. Dwight's life speaks
eloquently of these influences.

John Sullivan Dwight was born.May 13, 1813, in Court
Street, Boston, the eldest of four children. At a tender
age he attended “the infant school of 'Marm English', who
was patronized by many of the ministers and the best
families“. After that he “went to the grammar school in
Derne Street, where he won a Franklin prize". Later he
'attended the Latin School, then taught by Benjamin Gould,
where he took.prizes whenever there were any, and secured
a Franklinnedal".6

There was no formal musical training then in the

schools but the “boy was passionately fond of street music,

51bid., p. 2.
6Ibid., p. 3.

and found delight in a street organ, even in later years“.
Music of any sort inspired him then, and later he "devoted
much time to the piano and flute“. His mother gave him
”an exquisite love of the beautiful and a fine aesthetic
sensibility“. 7

In 1829 young Dwight entered Harvard College,
“carrying thither," according to his own statement, “perhaps
more Latin and Greek (technically as to grammar, at least)
than I he brought away.“ Being so well prepared discourage
further exertion on his part but "he kept a respectable
standing in his class“. His major interest was always in
music "more than in any prescribed college study, and it is
because of that interest he is chiefly remembered by his
companions.“

Music was then no part of the college course;

but Dwight early joined the Pierian Sodality,

a club of students for musical study and

practice. It furnished music for the

exhibitions, which was thought to be very

good. It was then the rule of college that

prescribed study hours should be kept by the

students. From 12M to 2 P. H. was a thee of

intermission; and the moment the bell rang

the noon hour Dwight caught up his flute, on

which he played until the bell rang again

for study, taking barely time to eat his

dinner in the interval.

That Dwight became an accomplished writer is not
surprising for at college his "love of poetry and the

best literature was only less than his love of music.“

7Ibid., p. b.

8Ibid., p. 4.
9:bid., p. 1+.

When a Junior "he read an original poem before the Hasty
Pudding Club, in the middle of the senior year he lectured
on music before the Northborcugh Lyceum, and a few weeks
before graduation he gave a paper on poetry before the '
Harvard Union.“ To add to his laurels "on graduation,
July 17, 1832, Dwight furnished the class poem, which
contained thirty nine-line stanzas.” That he was
outstanding becomes apparent for his class contained names
of brilliant men, among whom was John Holmes, brother of
the poet.10

In 1832 he entered Divinity School of Harvard
College, where as in College, Dwight's one interest was
music.11

In July, 1&37, on Exhibition Day, "a number of
graduates, who had been members of the Pierian Sodality,
met with.the students who were then.membere', and
discussion was held of the work of the Society. A
circular was "sent out to all formervmembers of the
Sodality, inviting them to attend". Dwight prepared the
report of the committee and read.it.

1°Ib1c1., p. 7.
lllbido, p. 80

He proposed two objects for the society
contemplated, the first that of holding
an annual meeting on Commencement Day of
those interested in music, and second
that of securing the advancement of the
cause of music, particularly in the
university.

The society took the name of the
General Association of the Members of
the Pierian Sodality. Henry Ware, D.D.,
was elected the president, and Dwight
the vice-president. In 1840 the name
changed to he Harvard.Musical Association.
In 18H5 the society was incorporated,and
in 1848 it began to hold its meetings in
Boston. From the beginning the society
took the position that Ithe science and
art of music is worthy of a place in a
system of liberal education, and
deservhng of cultivation by educated
men“. It took for its definite object
to secure ”the introduction of music as
a regular branch of instruction, and the
cultivation of musical aste and science
in Hhrvard University.1

It is interesting to note that Dwight, in 1838, wrote
'1
reviews of Tennyson's Poems“ for the Christian Examiner, the
Unitarian periodical. "His review of Tennyson was the,

earliest published in this country, and was marked by his

independent and appreciative spirit”.13

In the letters of these years there
are hints of various activities and
interests, hymns written for the ordination
of Theodore Parker and on other occasions,
a visit full of satisfaction to Dr. Channing
at Newport, attendance upon the meetings of
the little company of Transcendentalists,

12Ibid., p. 8.
13Ib1d., p. 20.

intimate friendship with.Ripley, a cordial
correspondence with Brooke, Parker,

Samuel Osgood, Bellows, Hedge, Elizabethlu
Peabody, Mrs. George-Ripley, and others.

Dwight, in 1840, was called to the pastorate of the
Unitarian church at Northampton. George Eupley ordained
and installed him, preaching the sermon, also, and
William Ellery channing delivered the charge.

Activities at this time, he describes informally

in a letter.

Writing to one of his sisters under date
of Jan. 12, 18hl, Dwight gives an account'
of his work in detail:'”Shall 1 give you -
the orders of performances for one week?
Sunday evening, a conversation or a
teacher's meeting- Monday, Shakespeare;
Tuesday, Glee Club; Wednesday choir
meeting- Thursday, the Ladies‘ Whist Club,
alias 'The Sociable'; Saturday, singing»
school for children, - - not to mention
parties and such like. Then there are
things to be written, things to be read.

I incline to books, and would pass the

day with them if it were possible. They
give me more satisfaction than men Just
now. The Dial I have nearly devoured

since sunday. It even clipped the borders
of my senmon some it was so irresistible

a dainty. It is a splendid number; and

I cannot but thank the good souls who
wrote in it, they have given me so much 15
of inward cmmfort and beautiful thoughts.

His observations here serve in some measure to
clarify his later withdrawal from the church. For, his
heart was in music, and the cause of music. Further, he

says,

1“Ib1d., p. 30.

l5Ibid., p. 38

I‘D

I‘

I have doubts about the Church. I
agree with.Parker mainly as to the
essence of Christianity. I

disincline more and more to the forms,
especially public prayer. I have less
sympathy than I had with the prevailing
spirit of the churches, and less hope
of ever being able to mould the church
and the profession to:my idea, so that
I could be true to my conviction while
continuing in them; and, in this state
of mind, while I cannot go heartily
and with my whole sould into a pulpit,
I feel that it would be false to do it
at all. e e 16

Dwight was a member from the first of the
Transcendental Club when it was started in Boston, where he
entered into the spirit of it with great enthusiasm. In
many ways "he was a child of his time in the truest sense,
sharing its hepes, Joining in its aspirations, and ready to
labor for the realizations of its ideals".l7

The Dial, the official publication of the
Transcendentalists, found Dwight a contributor. Two sermons
under the titles “Religion of Beauty", and l'Ideals of
Everyday Life" found a place in this Journal, as well as
a poem called "Best”.

Best

Sweet is the pleasure
Itself cannot spoil!

Is not time leisure
One with toil?

lélbldo; P. “'70
17Ibid., p. #8.

Thou wouldst take it,
Still do thy best;
Use it, not wast it,
Else 'tis no rest.

Wouldst behold beauty
Near thee, all around?
Only hath duty
Such a sight found.

Rest is not quitting
The busy career;
Rest is the fitting
or self to its sphere.

'Tis loving and serving
The Highest and Best!
'Tis onwards! unswerving,18
And that is true rest.

Following his friends toward idealistic transcendental

and associationistic goals, Dwight became a member of Brook

Farm.

Here

Dwight directed.the musical life of the
community. His entusiasm for the musical
art found scope for expression at this
time. The materials he had at command
were not of the best, but he made the
most of them. He cultivated a taste for
the better kinds of music, talked so
enthusiastically about the divine mission
of music, and gave so much time to
bringing out the best musical qualities
of the members of the community that he
succeeded in impressing his own tasteg
and convictions upon all around him.

Dwight contributed much to Brook Farm and was

I‘practical in suggestion and fertile in plans and wise in

counsel“. Ripley even, was not "superior to him in the

work of distinctly shaping the future plans of the community“

181bid., p. #4.
19Ibid. , p. 61.

-lO—r

He had, however, "no financial skill and his administrative
gifts were limited".20

But he had in him a deep strong, practical
common sense, a capacity for touching life
on the side of its every-day interests,and
he greatly admired.men of common sense and
executive power. While of a most refined
and sensitive organization himself,
delicately alive to every aesthetic interest,
and of exquisite tastes, he was no dilletante,
and in no sense over-refined or finical. He
mingles freely with the people of the Farm,
keenly sympathized with the toils and
deprivations of workingmen, and was eager to
do what he could to improve the condition of
those hard beset in the struggles of life. He
~ had an inclination to despise those who were
not cultured, but freely appreciated the
genuine gifts of all persons. He loved
genuineness and thoroughness wherever they
were found, and he exercised a large and
wholesome influence in putting these virtues
into the working policy of Brook Farm.21 -

Thg’Harbinger received the constant contributions of
Dwight ”during the whole period of its publication“.
Editorials on association, he wrote, as well as on music and
literary topics; he reviewed many books, and sometimes
contributedpoems.22

In the first number of ghg_Harbinger Dwight pointed
out that in America "we have no composers; no great
performances in our churches; no well endomued.and thorough
academies to train the artist, or to educate the public taste
by frequent hearings of the finest compositions, except in a

very limited degree". In answer to this need he promiea to

2°Ib1d., p. 83.
21""
Ibid., p. 83.

221bid., p. 107.
-11-

devote his column to the promotion of musical taste and

knowledge. ‘Thus

. . . The Harbin er became one of the best
musical Journals £5. country has ever
produced. The criticisms were strong and
effective; and the interpretative articles
were in good literary form, incisive with
keen artistic insight, and adapted to give 2
the art real meaning as a source of culture. 3

On February 12, 1851, John 3. Dwight married Mary
Bullard, a member of the choir of the Religious Union of
Associationists. The ceremony was performed by

Rev. W. H. Channing.2u

Mary Bullard was a beautiful, winning,
unselfish woman, a fine singer and a
person of many attractions of body and
mind. She had a serene and chanming
face, was a fine talker, and had a most
gracious and.attractive manner. At
Brook Farm her coming was hailed with
delight by all; for she was a superior
singer, and she lent herself pleasantly
' to all the interests of the place . . .
Wm. H. Channing said that without being
morbid, she was the most thoroughly
conscientious person he ever knew.

Brook.Farm dissolved, Dwight sought means of support.
Turning to music Dwight issued the first number of
Dwight's Journal of Music in April 1852. A guarantee fund
was generously contributed for this purpose by several of
his Associationist andfMusical friends. The Harvard.Husica1
Association "lent its aid to the proJect and made it
financially possible."26

2311315., p. 108.
2bIbi__£1_., p. M3.

zslbido’ p0 114'3. .
262250, p. ’49. “'12-

 

Our motive for publishing a Musical
Journal lies in the fact that music has
made such rapid progress within the last
fifteen, and even the last ten years.
Boston has been without such a paper,
and Boston has thousands of young people
who go regularly to hear all the best
performances of the best classic models
in this art. Its rudiments are taught in
all our schools.

All this requires an organ, a
regular bulletin of progress; something
to represent the movement, and at the
same time, help to guide it to the true
end. Very confused, crude, heterogeneous
is this sudden musical activity in a
young utilitarian peOple. A thousand
specious fashions too succesfully dispute
the place of true art in the favor of each
little public. It needs a faithful, serene,
friendly'voice to point out steadfastly the
model of the true, the ever beautiful, the
divine.

We dare not promise to be all this;
but what we promise is, at least, an
honest report, week by week, of what we
hear and feel and in our poor way understand
of this great world of music, together with
what we receive through the ears and feeling
and understanding of others, whom we trust-
with every side-light from the other arts.27

Dwight decided on a trip to Europe to travel and
study. His wife was taken ill shortly after he left and
died within a few weeks.

Dwight spent a few days in England,
was for a fortnight in Paris- went through
Switzerland, and then on to ermany . . .

In Berlin some months were passed, and
visits were made to Leipzig, Dresden,Munich,
and other cities . . . He then went on to
Italy, passed on to France, and reached
England in July 1861. . . Dwight . .
finally returned home in November.28

27mm. , p. #9.
231mm, p. 51.

1’2_-

The ensuing years found.Dwight engaged continuously
in his literary and musical pursuits. The Dictionary of

American Biography tells us that

Dwight was for eighteen years a
trustee of the Perkins Institution for
the Blind and gave to it enthusiastic
service. He was one of the earliest
members of the Saturday Club. . . He was
vice-president of the Harvard Musical
Association from 1855 to 1873 and president
and librarian from 1873 to his death. In
1865 he was instrumental in the formation
among its members of the Philharmonic
Society; and in 1876 with the establishment
of a professorship of music at Harvard he
saw the accomplishment of the Association's
stated object. After the death of his wife
in 1860, while he was in Eur0pe on his only
trip abroad, he made his home for awhile
with his mother and sister, then in an
apartment near the Journal office, and after
1873. in the rooms of the Harvard.Musical
Association. Here he died in his 81st
year.

Music, however, had formed.the very center of his
life and activity. Cooke remarks that "a biography of
John S. Dwight on a comprehensive sacle, would be a history

30

of music in Boston from 18ho to 1890'. For not only

did Dwight discuss the musical events in his Journal for the
about thirty years of its existence, but he participated in
their ”inception and direction“.31 There were several
instances in which this was emphatically true; "the
Harvard.Musical Association and its symphony concerts, the
professorship of music in Harvard University, the giving

29Dictionary of American Biography. p. 568.
3°g____ooke.,o gp. _c____1t., p. 211+.
311b:de, p. 21“.

~14-

of musical instruction in the public schools, the building
of the Boston Music Hall and the securing of its great
organ".32

John S. Dwight welcomed enthusiastically all
musicians, especially young men of ”talentand genius”. As
a critic he ”urged their claims upon the public“ by praising
their work. And, ”not less sympathetic was Dwight's welcome

to musicians from other countries who came to reside in

BOBtOD'eBB

Boston accepted.Dwight for many years as the
"musical dictator'I and.'what he approved was accepted as
right and good'.3u -An autocrat of musical taste was he and

. . . none questioned his opinion, at least
with any probability of getting his heresy
accepted. He had a remarkable gift for
interpreting a musical composition, bringing
out its salient points as a work of art, and
putting its leading motives into literary
form. His aesthetic perceptions were keen,
his artist Judgment sound, and his poetic
appreciation of a high order. These
qualities, along with a vivid.imagination,
and a diarming gift for literary expression,
made him an able critic, and one capable

of impressing cultivated persons with the
value and correctness of his opinions.35

In summation of Dwight's literary rank, Cooke
evaluates his writings on a high level. And on the basis

of the caliber of the Musical Reviews of The Harbinger,

I concur in his evaluation. Says he,

3?;p;g., p. 21#.
33933., p. 223.
3“;2gg., p. 230.
3?;2;g., p. 230.

-15-

Dwight translated.music into literary
form, showed the public what to find in it,
and how to discover its profound spiritual
charm and power. This is what no one else
had done with anything like such beauty of
language or such skill to convince and
enlighten. A score or more of his essays
on general topics connected with music,
scattered through the pages of the Journal
of Music and other periodicals, deserve
a _pIace alongside the best writings of
Ruskin. They have power, insight, grace,
charm. They are not less needed today than
when they first appeared; for they discuss
the primary and eternal significance of
music as an art, its power to enlarge thg
meaning of life and to purify the soul.3

Dwight liked.people and went much into society where
he received a welcome from the people of culture who admired
his literary and musical gifts. He was a ”quiet, sunny,
beaming person“.37 However, he "had very little practical

talent, was almost helpless about details of daily living”. 38

Money, apparently, meant little to him for he had little

appreciation of its value, was all his life poorg and not
capable of getting on in a thrifty and saving way of life“.39
The day he was eighty, May 13, 1893. the “Harvard

Musical Association gave him a large birthday party, and his

#0

friends gathered in large numbers“. One can imagine the

pleasure he had on this red—letter day.
During his last illness which occurred that same year
he “had the constant and tender care of relatives, and his

#1
brother Frank.was with him in the last hours“. From all

36Ibid., p. 236.
37Ibid., p. 266.
38132.1” p. 266.
39Ibid., p. 266.
40:16:61., p. 294.
“11mm, p. 29». -,

around came friendly messages during these last days. He
died on September 5, 1893.
As a tender parting tribute to a dear friend,
' O. W. Holmes wrote a poem which was read at the funeral
service by Mrs. J. W. Howe.
To John S. Dwight

0 Presence reverend and rare,

Art thou from earth withdrawn?
Thou passest as the sunshine flits
To light another dawn.

Surely, among the symphonies
That praise the ever-blest,

Some strOphe of surpassing peace
Inviteth thee to rest.

Here thou, a watchful sentinel,
Didst guard the gates of Song,
That no unworthy note should pass
To do her temples wrong.

Dear are the traces of thy days
Mixed in these walls of ours;

Thy footsteps in our household ways
Are garlanded with flowerw.

If we surrender earth to earth,
The frame that's born to die,
Spirit with spirit goth ascend
To live immortally. 2

“21b1d., p. 296.

CHAPTER II
The Harbinger; Its 'raison d' etre'

A consideration of the Musical reviews, contributed
to The Harbinger by John Sullivan Dwight, would fail of
completeness without a survey of the social climate which
produced such a publication. America, the new world of
hope and.opportunity, became the testing ground for
countless social theories propagated by the visionaries
of a new social order. Foremost among these 'visionaries'
at this period, the midpninetennth century, was the school
of Transcendentalism which ”yet remains the most important
influence that has affected American literature“.1 In
New England it "was democracy in contact with Puritanism,
to define it historically".2 Clarence L. Gohdes says that
although Icontemporaries of the movement were not able to
say that transcendentalism was they know who the
transcendentalists were".3 Dwight, although not a charter
member of the Transcendental Club, became a later member,
and identified himself with the movement.”

George W. Cooke tells us that transcendentalism
”was a movement of inquiry, revolt against conventionality,

and assertion of the worth.and dignity of man. It declared

1George Willis Cooke, The Poets of Transcendentalism, p.3.

21bid. p. u.

3Clarence L. Gohdes, The Periodicals of American Transcendentalism,
P090

“Harold Clarke Goddard, Studies in New England Transcendentalism,
P0380

that religion is natural to man, that he may trust his
own instincts, that individual freedom is essential to a
large and.wise living, and that spiritual insight is a
direct revelation from God".5 Dwight reflected such
idealism in his reviews. He sought his goal through.music,
and, as a transcendentalist, believed that "when the
individual so wishes, when he keeps his mind clear and his
heart pure, and.when his soul is freely open to the life of
the Spirit, inspiration will come to him according to his
need . . . when his soul is open and his life pure he can
always have the indwelling of the Spirit“.6

The Dial, transcendental organ, had its day Just
preceding the appearance of The Harbinger. Of it, we learn
that >

The literary achievements of

Transcendentalism are best exhibited

in the Dig}, a quarterly "Magazine

for Literature, Philosphy and

Religion”, begun July, 1840, and

ending April 1844 . . . George Ripley,

James Freeman clark, Theodorc Parker,

Wh. H. Ghanning, Henry Thoreau, Eliot

Cabot, John S. Dwight, the music critic,

C. P. Crouch, the artist-poet, Wm.E.

Channing were liberal of coytributions,
all,in characteristic ways.

In a transcendental vein in this early publication,
we find Dwight, in his late twenties at this time, pouring
forth ma views.

5George Willis Cooke, op. cit., p. 7.

Cooke,,§oets of Transcendentalimg, p.7.
7Octavius B. Frothingham, Transcendentalism in New England,p. 132.

-19-

The religious man lives for one great
obJect to perfect himself, to unite
himself by purity with God, to fit
himself for heaven by cherishing within
him a heavenly disposition. He has
discovered that he has a soul; that his
soul is himself; that he changes not
with the changing things of life, but
receives its discipline from them; that
man does not live by bread alone, but
that the most real of all things,
inasmuch as they are the most enduring,
are the things which are not seen; that
faith and love and virtue are the
sources of his life, and that one
realizes nothing, except he lay fast
hold on them. He extracts a moral
lesson, a lesson of endurance or of
perseverance for himself, or a new
evidence of God and of his own immor al
testing, from every day's hard task.

The Brook Farm enterprise developed as an outgrowth
largely of the ideals of transcendentalism. It "was
proJected on the purest transcendental basis . . . The
Jealous regard for the rights of the individual is not the
least characteristic feature'.9 Dwight, being identified
with this group, early became a member of the Brook Farm
Community. “It was felt .'. . that in order to live a
religious and moral life in sincerity, it was necessary to
leave the world of institutions, and to reconstruct the

10

social order from new beginnings“. The George Ripleys

established their community and

81b1de , p. 1470
9M0 a P0 158.
oIbid., p. 158.

-20-

The reputation for gains, accomplishment

and wit, which the founder of the Brook

Farm enterprise enJoyed in society,

attracted towards it the attention of the
public, and awakened eXpectation of

something much more than ordinary in the

way of literary advantages. The

settlement became a resortIor cultivated

men and women who had experience as teachers
and.wished to employ their talent to the

best effect; and for others who were tired

of the conventionalities and sighed for 11
honest relations with their fellow beings . . .

The Transcendentalist was satisfied with
nothing so long as it did not correspond to
the ideal in the enlightened soulf and, in
the soul recggnized the power to make all
things new.l

That J. S. Dwight became an.important member of the Brook
Farm community, as music teacher and writer is a matter of record.

Brook Farm was a transcendental movement
without doubt, but only, after all, in
that it was a speculation of pure
idealists, and that its inspiration came
from the sources so imperfectly outlined.
These 'sources' included Immanuel Kant,

and the schools of Fichte, Schelling,Hege1,
and.Schleiermacher - ”German philosphers'.
Their (the members of Brook Fanm) features
were composed and.their minds attuned to
‘the Immensities and Eternities . . . Indeed
these Transcendentalists often found
themselves enJoying seraphic moods.
Philosphy, foreign and.domestic, was only
a part of what they considered. They were
reformers in that they were dissatisfied
with.any ideal less exalted than their own,
and.though far from a contentious or an
unamiable set, they had the reformer's
capacity for making others feel a sense of
ineptitude. The relative fewness of their
members made this unconscious loftiness
seem arrogance.

111b18., p. 166.

_121b1a., p. 182.
13Lindsay Swift, Brook Farm, p. 11.

-21-

The Ripleys had achieved their wish; "to insure more
natural union between intellectual and manual labor. . . to
guarantee the highest mental freedom . . . to do away with

the necessity of menial services by Opening the benefits of

I!
education and the profits of labor to all. 14

To further the interests of the community abroad,
,ghg Harbinger came into being. The Pilgrim House became the
location of the editorial office of this organ.15 ”The
barrenness of its appearance was the more marked because
there were no trees about it; and standing, as it did on

high ground, it proclaimed, in its oblong shape and white
16

paint, an austere New England origin”.

Here, in 18h5, The Harbinger was started,

. . . a weekly Journal devoted to Social and
Political Progress; published by the Brook
Farm Phalanx. The Prospectus, written by
Mr. Ripley, made this announcement; ”The
principles of universal unity taught by
Charles Fourier in their application to
society, we believe are at the foundation
of all genuine social progress; and it will
be our aim to discuss and defend these
principles without any sectarian bigotry,
and in the catholic and comprehensive
spirit of their great discoverer.l '

Frothingham then goes on to tell us that

In the four years of its existence the
paper was faithful to this grand and high
sounding promise. A powerful company of
writers contributed their labor to help
forward the plan. The Journal was

1“11:19,. , p. 15.

15Ibid., p. 32.
16Ibid., p. 32.
17Frothingham, o . cit., pp. 327,328,330.

affluent and sparkling. The literary
criticism was the work of able pens; the
musical and art criticism was in the
hands of the most competent Judges in
the country; the aesthetics were not
neglected- the verse was excellent; but
the social questions were of first

. consideration. These were never treated
slightingly and the treatment of them
never deviated from the high standard
proposed by the editors.18

An imposing array of contributors impresses us even today.

The list of its contributors contained
the names of Stephen Pearl Andrews,
Albert Brisbane, W. H. Channing, W. E.
Channing Walter Channing, James

Freeman Clarke, Geo. H. Calvert,

J. J. COOkO, A. J. H. Di! anne, Co PO
Cranch, Geo. W. Curtis, harles A.

Dana, J. S. Dwight, Horace Greeley,

Parke Godwin, I. H. Hedge, T. W.
Higginson, M. E. Lazaries, J.R. Lowell,
Owborn Macdaniel, Geo. Ripley, S. D.
RObbinB, L. w. Rycman, r. G. ShaW,

W. W. Story, Henry Janes, John G.
Whittier, J.J.G. Wilkinson - - a most 1
remarkable collection of powerful names. 9

A variety of different subJects was sometimes contributed
by the same writers and the departments were not “systematically
arranged“.

Mr. F. G. Shaw published, in successive
numbersa an admirable translation of George
Sands! Consuelo”, and wrote against the
iniquities of the principle of competition
in trade. C. A. Dana noticed books, reported
movements, criticized.men and.measures,
translated poetry from the German, and sent
verses of a mystical and sentimental
character of hiw own. C. P. Cranch

181b1d., pp. 327, 328, 330.
19Ibid., p. 329.

-23n

contributed poems and criticisms on art
and music. J. 3. Dwight paid attention
to the musical department, but also
wrote book reviews and articles on the
social problems. W. H. Channing poured
out his burning soul in denunciation of
social wrong and.painted in glowing
colors the promise of the future.

G. W. Curtis sent poetry and notes on
literature and music in New York. . .
Mr. Ripley, the managing Editor,
supervised the whole; wrote much himself
on the different aspects of association;
reported the progress of the cause at
home and abroad; answered the obJections
that were current in the popular
preJudice, and gave the paper the
encouraging tone of his cheery,earnest
spirit.

The actual appearance of The Harbinger was scholarly,
being a generous quarto, with three columns to a page.

The good of all mankind was the keynote .
. . The artisan and the cultured were
ready to hand at Brook Fans, not so much
to read as to make The Harbinger, which
owes its existence to this combination .
. . It not only gave immediate work to
compositors and pressmen, but it brought
forward in a definite way literary
aptitudes which needed soil for a start,
and which grew sturdily after the paper
had stapped . . . Of the articles,Dwi ht
wrote three hundred and twenty-four.2

The Dial and the Present, which had preceded The
Harbinger, left a clear field for the new paper which "could
not have been started during the life of either of these

precursors, for the reason that there would have been no

room left for it”.22 Ripley seized one advantage in

making a recognized organ of The Harbinger of a far larger

zolbide, p. 329.

lewift, op. cit., p. 265.

22
Ibid., p. 26“.
-24-

purpose than the financial return of an isolated experiment.
The cause of Association gave him reason to hope for a
modest success for the country at large was taking a great
interest in this, one of the absorbing questions of the
time. An able corps of writers, a great vantage point,
and a wide program characterized it. The Harbinger occupied
also the field left open by Brisbane's paper, the Phalanx,
which terminated in 1845.23

The Harbinger lived a comparatively brief existence.
However,

That the ”Harbinger” should have lived no

longer than it did, with such a corps of

writers and so great a cause, - - the

last number is dated February 10, 1849

- - may be accounted for by the feeble 24

helf that Socialism had in this country.

Other.influences were being felt and Frothingham says
that ”The decease of the Harbinger was the end of that phase
25

of Transcendentalism”.

231bid., p. 264.
2l"'Frothingham, op. cit., p. 330.
251bid., p. 330.

-91:—

CHAPTER III
THE MUSICAL REVIEWS

1.
PROLOGUE

The musical reviews of John Sullivan Dwight,
published in Eng Harbinger, reflect a many faceted
personality, a personality admirably adapted to his chosen
role of music critic. A cultural background found in his
early home training, later profoundly broadened and
deepend by his education at Harvard, served to bend all of
his efforts to promoting the best in music at a time when
such efforts were of inestimable value to a locality and
to a nation.

An idealist, trained in the service of the church,
Dwight was quick to sort the wheat from the chaff. Lacking
in‘the fundamental discipline demanded by organized
religion, and loving music and the cause of music, he
entered on the high.mission of educating the musical taste
of the masses toward the highest attainable goal. He
believed in the ”gospel according to Mozart, Haydn and
Beethoven!“1 And he spread the gospel far and wide,
serving faithfully, and fruitfully for more than a half a

century in its cause.

1
The Harbinger, III. 395.

We discover in Dwight's exposition, criticism,

evaluation, and exhortation, evidences of the man as

idealist, poet, educator, philosopher, crusader, theorist;

a man who tinges his comments with a bit of humor; a man

who, though genial and fair, clearly and boldly penetrates

to the core of the composition or performance; recognizes

the real merit of the performer.

2

Dwight states his own criteria for criticism;

“It is no doubt an important province
of musical criticism to weight in the
appreciating scales of true taste, and
sound knowledge of the principles of art,
the merits of performers; most of the
newspaper criticism seems confined entirely
to this, or rather to the poorer business
of recommending or disparaging the one or
the other virtuoso, orchestra, or company,
in the pure pride of criticism, as if
each.would show his ability to sport a
notion of his own as well as anybody else,
But after all, is this the highest satisfaction
to know how much, or even wherein one singer
is better than another? to settle or to meet
the question of personal precedence between
two rival cantatrice (forced by critics to
be rivals) as if between two steamboats? We
TEel we labor to a better'purpose when we
call attention to the standard works in
music, to the artistic beauties of the
composition in itself, and when we urge
those who would know the real Joy of music
to cultivate all Opportunities of hearing
compositions which are good, of studying
them for their own sakes even through the
medium of imperfect representation“.

Ibid.’ Iv, 299.

--270

2.
EXPOSITION OF MUSICAL IDEALS

Surrounding all of Dwight's Musical Reviews in the
Harbinger is an ethereal halo, lending an otherwordly glow
to his expositions of the masterpieces. In 1845, more than
a century away from this age of naked realism, the 'new
world' was reflecting the EurOpean Romanticism with the
lyrical approach to the worship of 'nature'. Dwight,
fruit of the new world harvest of culture, exhibits at
times tendencies to wander far from the path of the ordinary
into the realm of the heavenly. A golden thread of
sincerity and a true insight into intrinsic musical values,
however, ties them all into a gift package which we now
open with pleasure and satisfaction. For the intrinsic
musical values which Dwight recognized a century ago have
been the values the world still acclaims.

Let us first regard Dwight as an early educator in
the realm of music through his Reviews. Beethoven, who
was still composing and receiving the adulation of musicians
for fourteen years after Dwight‘uas born, receives full
honors in these columns, and we discover lengthy and
detailed.word descriptions of the Fifth, the Seventh, and
the Ninth.Symphonies. For those who read these expositions
of the symphonies, this was a true bit of instruction, for

the sugar coating hides much real information and valuable

-23...

instruction. For instance,

Let it be understood then that
every Sumphony is cast in a certain
uniform mould, that its form is
conventional. Hayden invented, at
any rate, perfected it- and
Beethoven could accomodate his
crowded thoughts to it without much
sacrifice; Just as Byron declared
that the stream of his inspiration
leaped and sparled all the more
vigorously within the rocky bounds
of rhyme and the Spenserian stanza.
In.the Symphony it is the first
movement onl which is strictly
symphonic. his is commonly
allegro; consisting of two divisions.
The former contains all the simple
themes or motivi, and is always
repeated. The latter is the working
of these themes into all manner of
transformations and combinations,
and it is here that the skill and
science of the artist are put in
requisition; his problem being to
stick to his text, and never repeat
himself, to develop the motivi of
the first division into inexhaustible
novelties . . .

This is information about symphonic form which all
interested.musicians would have read avidly, for musical
text books were not then what theyware now. Continuing,
we read,

Then follows the slow and thouhtful
Andante or Adagio, which is commonly
in the Rondo form; that is, an air
repeated three or four times, only
each time with a more florid
accompaniment. Awhile it dallies

in the graceful, playful form of the
minuet and Trio, or fantastic
Scherzo; and then it gives full
reins and lets excited fancy speng
itself in the rapid wild finale.

31b1d., v, 329.
41bid., v, 329.

-0n,1

is new

urging

A true educator informs his learners also of what
and valuable in his aahere of interest, constantly

an appreciation of the very highest and finest

available. This J. 5. Dwight did, constanthy and

persistently. With fine discrimination he writes

encouragingly of the groups which were endeavoring to

promote the classics, so dear to his heart.

5Ib1a.,
61bid.,

The friends of Mr. William Eeyser,
the leader of the Boston Academy's
orchestra, have lately arranged a
couple of concerts of Chamber

Music for his benefit. They took
place at the rooms of Mr. Chickering .
. . The music was exclusively for
stringed instruments, Quintetts and
Wuartetts, with the addition of a
violin Solo. This seemed to us at
first an unfortunate arrangement; we
could not but lament the want of a
Trio with Biano, (one of the grand
pianos of hickering) or the
introduction (which would have been
practicable enough) of one of
Beethoven's Sonatas, for the piano;
or say, of one of Beethoven's 5
Sonatas for piano and violin, . .

Reading on in this same review, we find that

First a Quintette from Beethoven,
a reproduction in that form by
himself of a portion of his famous
Septuor. The violincello part was
strengthened by the addition of a
doudle bass, and, all the other
instruments being effective, the
whole made out a rich and.powerful
combination; and the impression 6
of the music was indeed sublime

IV, 295.
IV, 295.

-30-

Classical and theological training at Harvard plus

the influence Of his associates made of Dwight a

philOsOpher. Throughout we find profound observations

concerning man and his relation to the universe, a

further reflection of the age in which he wrote. Music

to him was symbolic Of a possible harmOny in human life,

and he maintained this point Of view even in attending an

unsatisfactory performance.

It will be seen we did not go
to this concert with a critising
spirit, but glad enough Of the
Opportunity to bathe our wearied
soul and senses in the renovating
music Of the great masters, and.to
share the sympathies of a genial
and delightful audience. f there
were faults in the performance,
there was enough Of the true spirit
of music to throw them into the
shade, and to transport us as we
wished to be in spite of them.

Oh! when shall life answer to this
prOphecy of harmony in music?

In other ways, alsos Dwight related his music

criticism to his general views of life and the times. For

instance, he says,

7

It is true that the whole rate
and standard of time has accelerated
lately, in perfect keeping with the
restless c racter of the age; we
life fast 0

Ibid., Iv, 296.

81bid., Iv, 185.

-31-.

And, if this remark is not up-tO-date enough, we
discover Dwight anticipating Einstein in his theory of
relativity when again in a philosophical frame Of mind he

states,

. . . it is true that time is
rather relative than positive,
and that the most rapid
prestissimo seems to glide on
without hurry when the tempo

of our own nevers and feelings
and whole system corresponds.
Thus familiarity with any piece
will make what was once very
fast, seem very moderate.

Tying in his views always with music, he compares
the ”diminished sevenths“ with their lack of repose to the
restless age in which he finds himself.

. . . the most unpleasant thing
about this music is that it is
too true to the age. It shows
the feverish intensity, the
highly spiced qualities, the
straining for effect, which

reign in French novels, in
politics, in Mexican Wars, in
everything; the disease of a
corrupt, and overconscious age,
in a false and miserable

dilemma between practice and
profession, and like those same
diminished sevenths which are the
truest type‘In music of universal
transition from one true concord
to another.

91bid., Iv, 185.
10 Ibid., Iv, 300.

From the philosOpher to the poet is but a short
step. It is true that Dwight actually composed poetry
which.was printed as such in the Harbinger. But poetry
in his prose is abundant also; figures of speech,
onomatopoeia, alliteration, and rhythm are everywhere,
while the soul of the true poet is nearly always present.

Performers of great music, he compares to a pilgrim
in this very nice metaphor, "We can excuse any lameness
in the execution of such (magnificent) music, as we would
in the gait of a pilgrim who has gravel in his shoes”.11

Onomatopoeia and alliteration and a subtle rhythm are
found in the following;

There is music in the very motions

of the arm by which this poetry is
wooed and.won from the strings - -

a music in which the eye too finds

its share of pleasure. How gracefully
the bow lifts upon the string and
then glides smoothly down the current,
like a leaf drOpping on a river, as if
the spirit of the melody were
imprisoned within the instrument, and
siren-like drew the bow after it,
controlling its graceful motions, as
the tide sways the boat:upon its
surface". 1

llIbid. , Iv, 300.

lzIbid., I, 380.

Again we find rhythm and poetry in his writing
of Mendelssohn's "Songs Without Words” - where he
writes,

Before the quiet summer is
all gone, and the bustle of the
"musical season' is upon us, with
concerts, oratorios and Operas of
all sorts to claim our notice, we
will try to pen some grateful
recognition of the musical spirits
which have gladdened our retirements.
Gliding subtly through whatever
troops of cares and sorrows have
at any time beleaguered the sick
soul, these gentle spirits have
gained entrance even to its inmost
recesses and made peace and
sunshine there. 1

How the sibilant S's slide, and how the rhythms rise
and fall! A simile later insinuates itself, then a

metaphor.

Each.melody with its
accompaniment, is like a pure
stream flowing through rich
scenery. The stream is the souls
consciousness, the scenery is the
world of mingled associations
through which it flows, time's
shadow on its surface. 1

l3Ibid., III, 218.
l“Ibid., III, 231.

-34.

Dwight'

Dwight.

Another example of alliteration we find in
s writing of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony.

Beethoven composed it in the
long summer afternoons, which he
spent in a rural spot Just outside
of Vienna, seated upon a style,
and surrendering himself to all
the sounds, sights, and sensations
of the country, so grateful to the
tired denizen of the city. 1

The poet and the idealist are one. So with
In him, we find an idealist of the first water,

idealizing all the best in music. To him Haydn and

Mozart were ideal. Of their works which.were performed

in Boston at this time, he writes;

lsIbid.

The next piece was one of
the most characteristic Quartettes
of Haydn, full of his brightest and
his deepest moods- played with
spirit, with.precision and with
unity. Then came a most celestial
Andante from a Quartette of Mozart's;
which the audience could not let pass
with a single hearing. Bathing your
senses in its most fluid, warm and
love-inspiring melodies, you became
all soul, and the world one perfect
element of love. It was like a
disembodied, pure existence, like
being caught up into a celestial
state; and yet not disembodied,

. I. 329.

except of the unnatural clog

of this false mortal being-

it was rather like inhabiting
a perfect body, true and pliant
to the least motion of the
spirit, in a world entirely
harmonious. As its last chords
floated away, and as it were
aloft, our spirits with them,
we would gladly have closed
our eyes and known no more 2%
conscious life that night.

His idealism leads him to find beauty everywhere;
beauty, nature, and.music - - these to him are as one.
An early member of the Transcendental Club, Dwight
subscribes to the idea of God revealed in nature; and,
further, he sees nature manifested in the truly great
.masic. In referring to Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony,

he writes,

'Sensations on arriving in
the country', is the title which
he has prefixed to the first
movement, the Allegro. nd in
this he is true 0 e genious of
music, in not attempting to
describe the country, but only
the sensations with which its
blithe free air, its cool green
spaces, its far spread smiling
landscapes, and its myriad
intermingled voices of birds,
insects, cattle, men, with the
thousandfold accompaniment of
wind and water and the universal
hum, inspire one. The melody has

l6Ibid., Iv, 295.

a light tilting motion, which
calls up at once that almost
dizziness with which the too
strong pulse of nature
overpowers us . . . the
minglind harmonies swell and
subside like a crowd of waves;
now it is an overfull and
stunning rapture, and then

it reels and ebbs away, the 1
fainting Of too much ecstacy. 7

Such an excess of rhapsodic revelations sounds

quaint, hackneyed, or even a little funny today. And

yet, with a bit of tolerant imagination, and calling to

mind the strains of the symphony, we find in the

description a sincerity Of feeling and a depth that

obscure the redundancies. Nature sings in he key of

I, so comments our critic further on this same symphonic

work;

17

o e e the ground Of the
all-pervading hum in the Open
air is what is marked in our
scale, F natural. The Allegro
of the Pastoral commences in P.
if now it were possible to detect,
not only the ground tone, but,
also the ground theme or melody,
not only the key note, but also
the tune of Nature's music, it
would be no more than what the
instinct of genius has done in
the Opening theme of this
Allegro. Beethoven seems to
have caught the very tune of the
fields. That is, he has caught
their spirit; and in him it.
passed into melody. The spirit,

Ibid., 1, 329.

the breath of Summer, in the mild
June afternoon, came over him, as
over her own harp (for such he was,
a harp of Nature by his whole
organization) and drew from him her
whole melody. 18

The individual, to the Transcendentalist, above
all must be exalted; the individual in God, and in nature,
and (to Dwight) in music. Says he, in continuing his

exposition of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony;

Buoyantly and lightly it
creeps up over us and whirls
out thoughts away with it in
graceful dance Over the sunny,
grassy plains and hills afar,
till we forget ourselves in
blissful reverie, mingling our
essence with the healthy
universal air, blending with the
scenes, and feeling the whole
landscape with as much thrilling
sense as we feel our own body.
There is a slight drowsiness in
the melody- the going to sleep
of disturbing individual thoughts,
while the mind.wakes to the sense
of universal harmony, the closing
Of the eyes upon vulgar glare,
and escaping into the milder halo
of beauty. 9

In the exposition of many compositions which Dwight
found.worthy of his musical reviews, nature plays an
outstanding part consistently. It‘Was the fashion, the
order of the day in which he lived. In a highly

181b1d., I, 330.
19Ibid., I, 330.

—38-

poetic vein he writes further of the Pastoral Symphony,
reflecting transcendental and romantic ideas.

The cloud sails over, a
shadow scuds across the plain,
which we dreamily watch till it
is lost. In a third phrase, a
Jubilant rapturous strain, we
exult in the fullness of wild
life. The lord of this sweet
pastoral creation is no
lighthearted.Adam in Paradise,
no idle swain cheered by bright
weather, but rather Endymion,
the shepherd.prince, who pined
in secret for a goddess, and
found sympathy only in the
woods and fields. Haydn's
descriptive pieces are Idyls,
simple cheerful pictures out
of common life. They paint the
actual merely. Beethoven's make
the outward world a mirror of the
soul. He does not copy the form,
but communes with the spirit of
nature. We feel that this
symphony answers the whole
question about the descriptive
or imitative power of music.‘It
shows us how far, and in what
way, outward nature may be
conveyed in music . . . In
strict truth, music cannot
imitate nature, since nature
imitates music. 20

This last remark places the emphasis on music as
it was to Dwight - the most important consideration in
his life. Carrying his love of nature into the
philosOphical realms, he lyricizes;

201big., I, 331.

-39-

Nature gives out her deeper
meaning and her music only to those
who have a corresponding depth of
life. Nature is more to the poet,
than to other men; and it took all
the mystic depths and soulstirring
knowledge of Beethoven, so to feel
the spirit of nature, until it
became a melody in his mind, as he 21
has done in this Pastoral Symphony.

Nature, the soul, and music are mingled in Dwight's
review of Mendelssohn's "Songs Without Words“ when he
sings;

Without words, and without
names, even! It is music speaking
for itself, or rather, speaking
to the human heart, disdaining
any other interpreter. . .
Sometimes . . . the accompaniment
suggests unearthly scenery,
enchanted regions, and the soul
is like the life of a soul-
disembodied, or translated where
it knows no more the fretting
bounds of time . . .

The atmosphere, the limpid
coolness of the water, the rhyth
of its motion, and the soft, sad,
yet voluptuous coloring of all
things; in short, the very volatile
essence Of all that is life, is,
as it were, caught and perpetuated
in these subtle, accomodating
forms of melody. What is the meaning
of Venice in history, is a question
which.might perhaps be answered if
we could only tell what influence22
this music ministers to the mind.

That musical keys have a special connection with

phases of nature, is again brought out when he theorizes;

lebido’ I, 332.
221bid., III, 231.

The gentle key, G minor
indicates soft moonlight or
starlight- and presently the
song floats off, in loving
thirds and sixths full of
tenderness and musing sadness
which has more of longing in
it than of regret or actual
suffering. 2

Furthering his cause of nature and music, after
a beautiful exposition of Mendelssohn's "Songs Without

Words", Dwight concludes;

You feel that no soul ever
conversed more intimately with
nature than did Mendelssohn when
he composed this music. And
music only could reveal what is
here revealed. 2

231b1g., III, 231.
2”1b18., III, 232.

3.
CRITICISM OF PERFORMERS AND PERFORMANCES

It seems probable that no musician of any note who
visited Boston during these brief years of £32 Harbinger
escaped the notice of J. 8. Dwight's critical pen. He
held the pen gently but firmly, and consistently prodded
and needled in the cause of Art - - the high Art of
music. Perfection his goal, he nevertheless bore
tolerantly the imperfections of the aspiring artists who
labored toward the mark of 'human best'. A warm
appreciation of well invested efforts toward a better
understanding of the glorious classics marks his critical
reviews, while a subtle urging for higher attainment may
be read in every line. A fine balance, well designed to
stimulate.the taste toward a visualization of great music
as it should be realized; and to indicate the path of its
consummation. A new world, ready to be led someway - -
and so fortunate at that crucial time to have the steady
firm hand of a great man to lead it even for a time on
the high way.

As a critic, Dwight appears consistently fair but
searching. A flash of humor used in a gentle kindly way
adds flavor to his writings; a crusading spirit lends
force to his reviews. And finally, he is a promoter of
musical organizations destined to fill a great need, such

as the Harvard.Musical Association, the Boston Academy of

-42-

Music, and the Boston Philharmonic Society. Always, he
kept the high goal of human perfection in performance
and program, never deviating from it. When the performance
fell short, the artist was gently taken to task; and when
the standard tenor of the program slipped below the ideal
standard, suggestions were made concerning a remedy.
Dwight was an informed.critic; he did not Just write - -
he wrote to a purpose.

After proclaiming criteria for criticism as Dwight
did, it must follow that using them as a basis of Judgment
the resulting reviews would then become impartial. And so
it appears. For regardless of the wordly standard of any
group or artist, Dwight kept his eye only on the goal Of
the best - — always. He would not compromise his ideal
for either worldly show or material gain. He became the
prophet of music in a New World. When even as famous an
artist as Ole Bull receives notice, we find the review
fair but searching, gradually educating his readers to a
point of discrimination.

Ole Bull has been taking his farewell in

a series of three concerts. As usual,

he was unfortunate in his orchestra, and

was obliged to dispense with the

accompaniment so essential to the

bringing out of any of his greater works.

The reduction of his price to the Boston

standard of half-a—dollar, much increased

his audiences. But the furor of the

public here for any prodigy of art never

survived the first visit. Still the
impression of the Norwegian has been deep

-43..

and will be lasting in many minds.

He is certainly a man of genius,
although he moves in that unfortunate
and dissipating element of Virtuoso—don,
which is more full Of seductive
temptations to ambition, than it is

to inducements to slow and deep creation.
Where prodigies succeed and eclipse one
another so rapidly, who does not contrast
the solid, eternal foundation of a
Mozart's or Beethoven's fame, with the
utmost that Ole Bull, or Ole Bull's
successors can possibly gain in such a
sphere? 2

That "Virtuoso-dom“ and outward show are regarded
with suspicion by Dwight appears here and in many other
instances. Always, however, he assuages the feelings by
an appreciatory thought such as;

We take leave of him (Bull) however with
sincere respect and admiration for his

many noble and fascinating qualities. He
has called out and purified the latent
enthusiasm of this wide spread and
diversified.peOple, as few could have 26
done, and America will owe him her thanks.

The artist who probably received the most genuine
applause from J. S. Dwight of any in these reviews was
Camilla Sivori. Of him we read,

We were present at the first concert of
the pupil of Paganini in Boston, when

he drew tones from his violin as sweet
and silvery as his name. The story that
his violin was Paganini's, is one which,
whether true or not, seems not incredible
when you have felt its magic. And having
believed this much, you not unwillingly
extend the circle of romance, for fitness!
sake, that there may be like instrument,
like player, and credit also what Jules
Janin says; that - - this young artist

in his mother's womb was daily made to

25Ibid., I, 329.
26Ibid., I, 329.

—44—

thrill to the vibrations of that
archpwizard's playing, and thus
that Paganini's spirit moulded and
attuned the child before he saw
the light. This may be fable; but
fable has its truth as well as
history; in this case it is at
least a very good poetic way Of
setting before us this young man
as the lineal representative not of
Paganini's bloods but Paganini's
genius. 27

Paganini, a true colossus to our critic, through
his pupil, Sivori, brings true appreciation from Dwight
couched in the following eulogistic phrases.

We were delighted with.the playing

of Sivori, as were the musical

nucleus of Boston, as were the

musical crowds of New York, and the
crowds on crowds who have acknowledged
his mastery in Europe. It was
unmingled, pure delight, and not
astonishment alone. Astonishment came
afterwards when we coolly reflect on
the performance; but while we listen
the art is too perfect to betray
itself- the end is as fully realized
as to be like nature, and your spirit
finds repose in its familiar wonders. 28

That Virtuoso-dam is superficial and an appurtenance
rather than a true ingredient of Art finds expression in the
following;

The difficult feats and tricks and
tours de force Of modern violin
vIrtuOEIty Sad grown so common,
from the hearing of great and
wouldpbe-great performers,that we
scarcely dared to expect much more
than a moment's repetition of that
kind of intoxication of the sense,
which constantly grows weaker,
though the means of excitement may

27Ibid., 111, 363.
281bid., III, 380.

-u5.

be stronger and more cunning. But
here indeed was something different
in kind, as well as degree. To be
sure, the three pieces he played were
essentially such music as Vieuxtemps,
Ole Bull, all of them dealt most with;
they were show pieces, written for
effect, to show the instrument, and
not classic compositions. But they
had a greater unity of purpose than
these things commonly have, and were
not loaded with forced ornament. 29

Following this appraisal is a detailed, delightful

description of the artist;

in the

The features of his face were delicate
and finely marked . . . the quiet deep
fire of his dark Italian eyes began to
light up his face. 0

A distinguished review of his technique is contained
following figure of speech;

The greatest difficulties were
accomplished with an ease that made
them seem familiar things; the
wonderful passages, which astonish
the vulgar, which we should call
tricks in another, did not come to

an end in themselves so as to be
separable from the rest like added
Jewels; but like the delicate tracery
of nature's foliage they all vanished
into the whole, as naturally as they
develOped from it, and left the
impression of something chaste,
harmonious, and complete.

On and on go these words of adoration. Yet in

the final paragraph come the searching words which point

up the whole review for his readers. The artist was

above reproach but, ah! - - what of the program?

291bid., III, 364.
3° Ibid.,III, 36a.

31 Ibid.,III, 364.

~46-

The whole performance leaves a feeling of
unmingled satisfaction. We only wish to
hear Sivori more, and hear him also in
more classical music. Should he play to
us again, we trust that ”Kreutzer Sonata"
of Beethoven, which he performed in
New York ("at the request“, as the bills
said ”Of some lovers of classical music!”)
will make part of the feast. We have yet
to learn by what right these modern
brilliancies are allowed to reign with
undivided and exclusive sway in every
public concert, while of the real works
of genius only the merest tastes are now
and then afforded us- and then they are
prefixed with an apology for being
classical", or in other words too good
for us!

Even Sivori, in Dwight's eyes one of the chosen
few - - yes, even he caters to public taste. And, as
always, Dwight will not accede to less than his ideal
'best'. However, before we leave these reviews of Sivori,
here is a poetic figure used in his description which
certainly bears quoting.

Wine shaken in a golden chalice seeks its
level hot more gracefully, than were those
witching chromatic modulations swalled up
in the yesty (sic) waves of his inimitable
tremolos- and never shall we forget the
indescribable effect Of those splashes of
sound, like big rain drOps, which fell
fitfully ever and anon amid the wind-like
rushing and gliding of his melodies, nor
how they chased each other off at the close
of the passage, making a sort of melody
themselves. 3

The reviews of the performers are also touched now

and then with humor. Dwight maintained that the flute and

321bid., III, 364.
33Ibid., III, 380.

.47-

the horn were no solo instruments, and he proceeded to
write his views in a humorous vein. Perhaps his best
example is the letter to Mr. Phunniwistle, signed from
C. Sharp. We read,

Every concert-goer will understand C. Sharp's
advice to his friend on the eve of playing
a grand Flute Concerto Solo;

My advice to Mr. P.

My dear Phunniwistle, as soon as your turn
arrives you will of course keep the audience
waiting some little time in expectation - -
it does them good, whets the appetite, and
makes them curious; stay until they are
tolerably fidgety, and then make your
appearance. Now mind! a Grand Concerto
always begins with a row - - or else it
cannot be grand; so tell your friend who
“Just scored it“ for you, not to spare the
brass. Well then, you commence with a crash,
key of C, all the instruments starting in
unison. Now the strain moves onward, Andante
Maestoso, you standing watching your'music
with your flute cast negligently into the
hollow of your arm, and your head gracegully on
one side as you can manage to get it. 3

Dwight's humor here may have a sting to it, merited
no doubt. How it was regarded, we may only guess. That it
may have been fruitful, in a degree at least, we have
reason to believe. Proceeding with the letter;

Having told your friend on what popular air
you have composed your Concerto, or fantasia,
he will, if he be a clever fellow, touch upon
it a little during the introduction, which you
occasionally, only occasionally mind you - -
will put the flute to your lips and play a bar
or two of it Just to show the folks you could
play the introduction, if it was not "infra
dig", and you happened to be in the humor. The

3"rpm. , I. 380.

-48-

orchestra are reaching a climax, climbing,
climbing, climbing,bearing your flute on

the tOp of their accumlated harmony, until

you all come together upon another crash, 35
more stupendous if possible than the first ...

A lengthy, very amusing descriptiorlin this vein follows.

Then comes a reference to the "anything goes" idea, in

a manner which cannot be misread!

Now as to this tune, I will suppose you have
chosen one of the popular airs of the day — -
"Polly put the kettle on“ for instance - -
for in composing either a fantasia or
concerto, it is not essentially necessary
that the air, any more that the scoring for
the orchestra, should be bonafide your own
work. ”Polly put the kettle on“ will make
an excellent theme and from the rarity with
which it is heard in a concert room will
doubtless be more strikingly effective. 36

The humor here, we note is full of sarcasm. This
letter to Phunniwistle is referred to by Dwight again in a
later review, in which the flute again meets with disparagment,
in a humorous, sarcastic vein.

. . . a Flute Concerto. (pardon us Signor
Rametti!) was a most remarkable and most
laughable production after the very pattern
of "C. Sharp's advice to his friend
Phunniwistle" . . . Such a composition. Why
it was an elaborate, and tedious de-composition
of the smallest minimum of a melody, through
a series of mechanical variations, made on
the principle of having each contain more
notes to the measure than the one which went
before.

A crusader and promoter is fortunate indeed to be

blessed with a sense of humor to lighten his long-range and

BSIbid.’ I, 3800

36
Ibid., I, 380.

37Ibid., v, 187.
_h.o-

Often discouraging task. Only through persistence and
insistent information over many years are such ideals as
Dwight sponsored finally realized, and then usually, only
in part. That some of his dreams did eventually materialize
is, now, part Of Boston's glorious history. Wherever any
part of history is glorious, one is sure to find in its
inception and moulding the mind and spirit of a great
personality. .

The cause of "The Handel and Haydn Society" came
close to Dwight's heart. Toward this society, as toward
other worthy musical organizations of his time, he was
half tender-concerned parent and half counselor-advisor.
As if they were his children they received his life-long
support and gentle admonitions. Of the ”Handel and
Haydn Society“ in Boston, he writes

This is the Oldest musical association
in Boston and devotes itself almost
exclusively to the production of great
oratorios. To its efforts we owe our
blessed acquantance with those comforting,
soul strengthening strains Of Handel's
"Messiahfl, the pure return of childhood's
cheerfullness in the “Creation", as well
as sweet confirmation of life's deepest
consciousness with the hearing and
receiving into our inmost souls the
highest utterances of so many other
inspired composers.

After these eulogistic words he continues with

paternalistic concern;

381b1a., 11, 76.

We continue to urge upon all to support
the Handel and Haydn Society by their
presence. It is due to the society for
their faithful effort to fulfill (gig)
high ends, and every lover of music

owes it to himself to put himself in the
way of that which is intrinsically best,
and which wil bear fruit in his mind
the longest.

As is nearly always his habit, after his crusading for
high causes, he leaves his readers with a word of appreciation
and encouragement.

The Society has acquired new life and
energy under its present conductor and
president, Mr. Chickering, know to the
world by his admirable piano-fortes,
the generous friend whom all musicians
in these parts know and love, and the
best man to unite in enthusiastic
cOOperations the elements too numerous
and so difficult to harmonize of so
large a musical association. &

Also, dear to his heart, was the Harvard Musical
Association, of which he was a charter member, and to which
he devoted his life. The Association gave a series of six
chamber concerts in the year of 1848 of which Dwight writes

The first two of this series of six
concerts were given at Mr. Chickering's
rooms, in Boston . . . We prize too
highly our rare opportunies of hearing
music Of this stamp at all, to be too
fastidious about the manner in which it
is performed. We trust the music in
itself as the composer's sould bequeathed
it to us- the real life we know is in it;
we cannot be content to have it shut up
from us like a sealed fountain, waiting
until perfect artists shall appear to

39Ibid., II, 76.
“01b1a., II, 76.

play it. All we ask Of our musicians
is; Try it, study it, do the best you
can with it, even through bungling
repetitions, if you have any soul,

such music will inspire it, and the
inspiration will ere long flow into
your fingers, and will have conveyed
the meaning of that music to your 41
audience, if they are fit to hear it.

Almost on his knees, pleading and begging for those

who care to rise to the high calling of music he says -

If a partie carre of musicians can be
found, who aspire to render divine
Quartettes and Trios of the great
composers for the sake of music, and
not for the sake of displaying their
own individual powers of execution,we
sympathize too fully with their
purpose to listen very critically for
false notes, or an occasional scraping
of the strings, or any littfie awkward
turn of a difficult corner. 2

Then, offering rewards, intangible of course to the

faithful, he continues,

If their aspiration be a true one and

if they will only resolutely adhere to
the highest order of compositions,there
will soon be virtues in their performance
which will far outweight these minor
defects; and even these will gradually
work out and disappear.

Then as a final parting word of admonition he says,

Music of this sort needs repeated hearings.
If the Programma for each evening were to
consist, half of pieces performed before,
and half of new ones to be repeated in
their turn, wfi think.it would be an
improvement. 4

“11b16., III, 394.

42
43

Ibid., III, 394.

Ibid., III, 394.

M’I1:>1c1., III, 395.

It must be that the Boston Academy of Music was a
sort of problem child tO Dwight for he speaks very plainly
in writing of it in his reviews. Between the lines we
read for ourselves many unspoken criticisms. Our crusader
and promoter finds here, however another essentially
high.minded.organization. Says he,

The Boston Academy of Music presented
an exceedingly good programme of
performances, and the excitation of

the different pieces was matched by a
degree of spirit which is quite

unusal at the Academy. It is somewhat

a matter of wonder that the concerts by
this society are of so moderate a degree
of excellence, when we consider how
select and well qualified are the
different members of the orchestra,and
how many good pieces are performed. Yet
it is true, that in spite of this, the
concerts are tame although they are
fashionable, and that they who can
appreciate good.music are the most
dissatisfied part of the audience. The
high rank which this society bid flair to
take, has not been realized. . . 5

This seems quite frank to be sure, and further on
Dwight says,

The Directors of the Academy began with
the design of elevating the standard of
musical taste, by the performances of
classical music in a thorough.manner
and although their concerts were
ill-attended at first, they soon got

a hold upon the people, and nourished
a better tastE and finally became
fashionable. 5

Our crusader warns us of the impending statements by
the word "fashionable”, which word portends a lowering Of

1+5

Ibid., II, 204.
46

Ibid., II, 20"".

standards.
No sooner were they fashionable than they
ducked to fashion; their pOpularity became
their bane; their original obJect was lost
sight Of, and the whole view of the
directors seems to have been to make
pleasing and popular concerts, which in

their opinion could only be done by
panderifig to a medium and uneducated

taste.

In the same highpminded vein, we find extensive
penetrating reviews concerning the Boston Philharmonic Society,
which seems to have been a rival Of the Boston Academy of
Music. Then, Opera came to Boston and received its due share
of criticism.

Nothing escapes our critic, J. S. Dwight, regardless of
the size, social weight, or monetary wealth producing the
concert. Regardless Of such values, we find him fair but
searching, a bit humorous at times, and always a crusader for

the highest in music and a promoter of the greatest intrinsic

music values.

47
Ibid., II, 2014'.

-52....

. 1+ .
EVALUATION OF MUSICAL COMPOSITIONS

The new world had a very difficult time assuming any
importance on its own merit musically. A raw, wild land
required human faculties in keeping. The fine arts fought
a pitiful battle to gain a foothold, and then only reflected
the glory of the old established EurOpean culture. In 1845,
a republic, then only eighty years independent, was asserting
itself in every way possible. But music, like a child, held
the hand of mother EurOpe, and modeled its ways after her
ways.

Several musical publication companies, however, were
putting down roots in Boston and New York, and as new
compositions were announced, J. S. Dwight carefully examined
them and wrote in his reviews his evaluation of them. Anxious
to help establish a worthy culture in his country, he was
quick to write appreciatively of native compositions; he was
cOOperative with the publishers in bringing their publications
to the notice of his readers; he studied methods and theories
of vocal and piano-forte training in an endeavor to point the
way to the best available material.

Of particular interest to present day pianists are the
reviews concerning William Mason, at that time a young

aspiring musician, who has taken a notable place in +American

musical history, Concerning a composition of Mason's,

"La Capricieuse", published by Oliver Ditson of Boston,

we read;

advice

We have examined this graceful and rather
original little production with.much
pleasure. It is composed in good taste,
with more than ordinary knowledge and
command of harmony, and by its freedom
from more commonplaces proves its author's
familiarity with and preference for the
higher styles of music. It seems to us
to lack warmth, and has the appearance of
being somewhat studied, — - which last,
however, is a good quality in a young
composer who has talent. 8

Here is encouragement plus a bit of sage critical
also;

Mr. Mason has rightly named it "La Capricieuse”;
in its conception it is rather an ingenious
fancy, than an inspiration- but it is wrought
out with no little art, and is indeed highly
creditable to the young pianist who is
rapidly mastering all the difficulties of the
New School Writers, while he sits with
becoming reverence at the feet of Bach and
Beethoven. This promises something and we
watch each step Of the fulfilment with
interest.

A typical list Of publications appearing in Dwight's

musical reviews at this time follows;

New Publications
Oliver Ditson

1. Tarantelle, ChOpin
2. Beauties Of Rossini's Opera “Semiramide”,
arranged for the Piano-forte, by William
H. Callcate.
3. One hundred and one Preparatory Lessons, Czerny
4. Le Pianiste Moderne, Felix.Mcndelssohn
5. The Death of Asceola, A Song b8 J. Phillip Knight
6. Son Vergin Vezzosa, Polacca. 5

“81b18., v, 346-7.
“91b1d., v, 346-7.
5°Ib1d., III, 76.

Following such a list, our critic takes each
composition, indicating its degree of difficulty, its
effectiveness and its value as true-music.

Another list by George Reed Publishing Company follows;

1. On Mossy Bank Reclining, by Schubert.
2. The Gallant Comrade, by Kreutzer

3. Farewell, Forever. Wegir

4. The Quail. Beethoven

Writes Dwight concerning these particular compositions;

Four more members of the most valuable
library of song, which has ever been
printed in this country. They are songs
for the few, but they will reach the
many. They came from the heart and the
heart will answer. "Jim Crow” may sell
faster today; but then these songs will
always sell. The truest personal
obligation to Mr. Reed. We are happy

to say, that the general character of
the music which bears his name as
publisher shows that his only motive was
not private profit but also an ambition
to do well his part, an enthusiasm for
music, and public spirit enough to show
our peOple what good music is, and put it
within their reach. If all, who minister
in any way to the public taste would
pursue the same enlightened and liberal
policy, both public taste and they would
be the gainer in the end. 52

Here is the encourager of the best in music, musicians,
and.music publishers, philosOphizing and moralizing as a true
minister of the gospel according to the classics truly should.
A paeon of praise is later, in this same review, raised to

German songs; says Dwight,

511bid., I, 26.
52Ibid., I, 76.

-5?-

German songs; such as are only born and
sung in Germany; for where else is the
life of men deep enough, strong enough,
and free enough? and that too in spite
of the worst and most petty forms of
political tyranny. The whole of German
life is a triumph of the mind over what
Robert Owen might call "most inferior
circumstances”. Your German is always
inspired with a sentiment. Rough and
rugged and bearded as he is, he has a
great loving heart and is himself
beloved of all the muses . . . 53

In praise of Schubert, we read;

One, (song of Schubert) is more than
we can exhaust in a lifetime. He

died very young, bequeathing his whole
soul in songs; his music took no other
form- that one inspiration filled him
until he was called away. His
symphonies and oratorios are for the
angelic ears. How we are tempted to
speak of his "Serenade“, his "Ave Maria",
his "Fisher Maiden", his "Nimmer,

das glaub mir, erscheinen die Gotter,
nimmer allein". (Never, believe me
appear the Immortals, never alone) 5”

After dealing with Beethoven's “The Quail", in which
he says,

It is in the key (of F) which is the keynote
of the general hum of things around us.
The Quail strikes in the accord of the
fifth, or C. It is worthy of note, that
in the natural scale of tones and colors,
as shown by Fourier, the great analogist,
side by side with the scale of the
Passions, the fourth or F, corresponds to
green, the color of variety, of the
Alternating Passion", which preserves
the general balance, by effecting
wholesome changes and saving from one
sided excess“ 5

531bid., 1, 26.

5uIbid., I, 26.
551b1a., 1, 27.

Dwight sagely says,
Let genius and science never quarrel. 5°
Then, in a witty fashion, he concludes,

They will be disappointed who listen
to this German bird for the sogg of
our Yankee Quail, "More wet!"

Verdi was at this period among the new composers in
the realm of Opera. Upon first hearing the operas from his
pen, Dwight considered him of the "tribe of Donizetti",
whose works appealed to him as lacking in greatness. Upon
further hearing Verdi's works, particularly ”Ernani” which
became very popular in Boston at this time, Dwight became
entranced with his different style and harmonic handling.
He writes,

Verdi's music wins our respect. The
weakness of Donizetti—ism and more
modern Italian sugary sweetness it
has entirely put away. It is full
of strength. Its melodies, so far,
wear well. Its Harmony fills and
satisfies the ear.

But can an Italian composer even approximate the height
of a German?

And yet we cannot speak of harmony
as his distinctive excellence, in
the same sense as when we say that
of Germans generally. Compare him
with Beethoven. In the latter
everything is woven into one
continuous web of harmonies from
first to last; the fugue principle
predominates, and that is the very
soul Of unity in art- The different
parts are born together, and are

56Ib1do, I, 270
57Ib1do , I, 27.
58Ibid., IV, 346.

~59-

evolved from one another, as branches
germinate from one stock. Verdi's
harmonies, rich and broad as they are,
seem either added to the melody to
enrich it, or coolly laid as a
foundation to rear the vocal structure
upon.

If Verdie merits so much consideration, wherein does

his real merit lie?

His greatest art, therefore, is the art of
effect; he combines everything with
reTerence to the best effect, consecutive

or simultaneous. Nothing is ever lost; one
part does not cover up another; and each one
prepares what follows so that it is sure

to strike, ang surely his effects are
magnificent.

Once again we find.music compared to color, a very
vital element in Dwight's appreciation of music. Says he,

Unison is tame and weak with overqmuch-ness
as we commonly hear it; but this writer
(Verdi) understands its use; he uses it
only as a painter would pure white, only
where there is the richest mingling of

all colors, deep or gay, around it; and

it marks the boldness of his genius that,
being wealthy, he can resort to such

simple means to heighten the effect Of
wealth. 61

Books of instruction are promoted eagerly by
J. S. Dwight, who writes reviews of the new books as they
come off the presses of the native publishing houses.

George P. Reed, of Boston, published "The Musical Class
Book for the use of Female Seminaries, High Schools,

59
Ibid., IV, 346.

601b1d., IV, 346.
6lIbid., Iv, 346.

-60-

Adult and Juvenile Singing Schools, Private Classes,
etc.“. Although this title seems a bit broad today and
optimistic in its sOOpe, we find Dwight supplies a
scholarly appraisal of the work. Says he,

The teaching of singing in classes has

become so methodized and uniform,since

the Boston Academy's Manuel, based

upon the Pestalozzian system, that

what is now most needed is good

teachers, and good exercises . . .

But there are things which systems

cannot teach. Such are good taste, a

true deep feeling, and, t3 the highest

sense of the word,style. 2

It is in his very nature to point the way to the
highest attainable goal, no matter of what or whome he may
speak. And here, he points out that the teacher will find
a ”double“ difficulty is his effort to lead the pupil to
that which is "high and beautiful and true". First,
”he has got to teach those how to study, who perhaps never
studied in their lives. And he has got to inspire the very
love he seeks to gratify“. The text book under consideration,
he tells the reader, “Offers all the aid to the teacher, which
a teacher ought to have“. After a thorough review of the
book's offerings, our critic-promoter recommends the volume
saying, “the book indicates the faithful experience of

a teacher, and affords conveniences for teaching and for

studying which have long been desired in vain”.

62
Ibid., I, 264.

-61-

In spite of the fact that Dwight deplored.materialism
and mechanics, seeking always the “soul“ and "depthll in
performance and composition, yet he rose with admirable grace
to give due credit to the New School of pianists and
violinists. A musician from this new school

will inspire and move, as well as,
astonish; seeking applause, he will
find the, heart of his audience. 63

Warming to his subJect he says,

Seeking the heart of his instrument he
(the musician) finds his own heart.
There is nothing like the excitement

of exertion in overcoming difficulties;
to fire one's whole soul and rouse into
action his best genius and so the
mechanical fingeraschool in music has
produced soul-stirring fantasies and
true pictures of marvelous beauty.
Springing from an ignoble source,the
steam is swollen in its winding way
with many a mountain brook from purest
heights. The fashion Of becoming great
players opend a market for great genius
too. Paganini, Thalberg, Chopin, Lizt
are no mere montebanks; they have not
stifled the divine fire in working at
the finger trade; but have occupied
with light and beauty, as fast as they
have congfiered, the stubborn world of
matters

Is not this a generous gesture to the New School?
Time has indeed placed three of the four composer-virtuosos
mentioned in the category of the world's great — — in the

hall Of immortal fame. And our critic, Dwight, recognized,
as was his ability to do, the true merit of the New School.

53Lb1d., I, 363.
641L1a., I, 363.

The theory of music was a subject which claimed
Dwight's attention also. A “Theory of Musical Composition“
by Godfrey Weber, translated from the German edition by
James F. Warner, and published by Wilkins, Carter, and
Company, of Boston, received a careful evaluation. After
congratulating "the musical world and.Mr. Warner"65
upon the completion of such a lengthy task, we read,

These two large volumes formidably
learned as they look, should be in
the hands of every musical student.
For the first time a work has been
presented to us in English, which
has some pretensions to the character
of a complete theory of the musical
art. 0 o

By theory of Composition in the
work.is meant, not all that pertains
to the various forms of art, as Canons,
Fugues, Symphonies, etc., but only that
essential grammar of music, without
whichéghere can be no composition at
all.

As a further recommendation to help assure a market
for the work, Dwight continues,

From the fame of the composer and the
very elaborate character of the work,

we presume that we have here the last
word of the Germans, the most learned
and most musical of all men, on this
subJect. Indeed Godfrey Weber is
considered to be the head of the musical
theorists now living, and to have worked
up the multitudinous materials furnished
by all earlier writers, into a clearer,
more consistent, and more complete ghole,
than they have ever yet exhibited. 7

651bid., III, 266.
661bid., III, 266.
67Ibid., III, 266.

I"

And, as if needed to be more explicit about the
great value of this new book on musical theory, he concludes,

Nothing can exceed the practical
thoroughness of this work. Thoroughness,
clearness, and progressive order are its
merits . . . every friend of music has
gaod cause to thank him for a real and
lasting service. And the publisher
should come in for a share of the public
gratitude; for nothing but a real zeal
for art could have dictated so expensive
undertaking in which he must wait years
for his remuneration. The two volumes
are furnished‘bound, at the very 6
reasonable price of five dollars. 8

A Philadelphia publisher, Thomas Cooper Thwait and
Company, issued a collection, called the 'Cantus Ecclesiae",
of sacred numbers, I'Comprising a selection of the best
standard compositions, and a large number from the works of
Haydn, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Sarti, Sabbatini, Naumaun,
Graun, Rossini, Donizetti; together with.many original
compositions by American Authors; and a System of
Instruction in Vocal Music, by L. Meignen. 69 Such
collections were Just beginning to appear in this country
under American names; and to Dwight, it was an event of
importance. Regarding this volume of songs he writes,

We regard this as a very superior

collection of church.music. Indeed,

it may safely be asserted that

compositions of so much character

as the majority of these show, have
never before crept into an American

681bid., III, 266.
69Ibid., III, 153.

Psalm book, if we make the single
exception of the “Beethoven
Collection” published in New York.
And the Cantus Ecclesiae has the
advantage over that, for practical
uses, from the fact that its
arrangements are more simple and
do not task the ordinary voice so
painfully. It has already been in
use sufficiently long to test its
excellence- and age is a greater
-recommenda ion than novelty, when
the article is good. 70

Always on the alert for an edition which would be
readily accepted and used by the average musician, this
Cantus Ecclesiae appeared to satisfy this requirement as
Dwight saw it. To further recomend it to his readers
he extolls the contents, though at the same time he rather
belittles American music.

There is a goodly number of the best of the
old familiar tunes, such as Old Hundred,
Nuremberg, Surry, Swanwick, Wareham,
Seasons, Hamburg, etc. No collection
can be complete in itself, supplying
what all seek, who have any associations
of their childhood's sabbath mingling
with the new emotions of a steadily
improving’musical taste, if it omit

the best, and best remembered of these
tunes. They are far too ingrained into
such.musical organizations as Americans
may be said to have, to be entirely laid
upon the shelf; and that they are really
good is proved by their universality.
The present collection seems to have
retained of this class only such as

show intrinsic excellence, and not to
have cherished any Pusly—istic'
partiality for the vulgar, canting sort
of strains which always found too great
a part of New England Psalmody.

7°Ib1a., III, 153.
71 Ibid.,III, 152.

~65-

l_|',,.

Frequent references to the plain, homely American
taste are made in Dwight's Musical Reviews. Continues he,

Upon this homely basis are superinduced
cepious draughts from the true well-heads
of son, from the classic composers of
EurOpe. Handl, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven,
furnish some half a dozen pieces each.
Naumaun, Graun, Plegel, Hummel, Winter,
also appear; Giardini, Donizetti, of the
Italians. hese compositions evidently
give the tone to the collection; the
influence of their style is visible

both in the selections of the old
psalmody, and in the original compositions
and arrangements of the whole. This is as
it should be; there is more religion in
the instrumental Quartettes and Sonatas
from which these classic psalm tunes are
derived, than the so-called Sacred music
of any but thg Catholic church has ever
manifested. 7

It is interesting to notice the reference again to
religion in music - - that is, in classic music, and also
his appreciation of, and respect for the Catholic music,
Music and worship, he felt, were closely knit if the music
were properly chosen.

Let us draw the music of our worship from

the deepest fountains, from those who

poured out their inmost lives in music,

and who did not deal with it as a ceremony
or as an amusement merely. 73

Speaking of the original compositions themselves,

Dwight says that they are “not too many, and not too
74
unworthy of the high company in which" they are presented.

2
7 Ibid., III, 152.

73Ib1d., III, 152.
7“Ib1d., III, 152.

..AA-

If they are not of such high caliber, at least

they display "a reverent congeniality, a real disposition
to resemble the nobler friends with whom they stand. That
is, there is a certain classic learning to be perceived

in them'.75 All tastes are catered to in this Psalm book,
but still it has "one pervading tone of a Psalm book suited
to the times, and bidding fair to last, mingled in very

76

Just preportions”. This work is arranged to be
easily read; "the accompaniment is written out in full,
instead of merely a figured bass; the poetry, though not
remarkable as poetry, it must be confessed, is not
crowdedly printed for the sake of giving a number of verses
to each tune; and generally, the style in which the work i
got up is generous, beautiful and clear." 77 i
The second part was made up of Anthems, Chants,
Sentences and so forth, which he calls the "distinguishing
feature of the book, and what gives it higher value than a
homely Psalm book.even if carried to the perfection of the
thing". 78 This feature was the "collection of pieces

drawn from the sublime Masses of Mozart, Naumaun, Sarti,

etc.". 79 One fault, however, was "the occasional

patching out of one piece with another, as where a funeral

751bid., III, 152.
76

gpgg., III, 152.
77Ibid., III, 152.
78929... III. 153.
792222.. III. 153.

 

-67—

anthem is made by adding to the first measure of the
stately Kyrie in Mozart's Twelfth Mass, a part of the
Agnus from another“.80 Even allowing for such

inconsistencies,Dwight adds he trusts “that music of this

stamp will become familiar in our churches.81

Always open minded to receive the finest regardless

of race or creed he cries,

Indeed we know not why our Protestantism
should exclude the real vital piety of
the Catholic worship, the natural
religion of the heart which never clothed
itself in such immortal warmth and
beauty as in the music of the Mass. 82

The "Systems of InstructionI included in this
collection of sacred music by Mr. Meignen seems to the critic

to be

. . . clear and comprehensive and well
thought out; a good guide for teachers,
who of course must fill in the necessary
amount of exercises at each step at
their own discretion. The exercises
here given are necessarily few; but
there is one, in the shape of a.Fugue,
which is not absolutely difficult, and
which combines so many of the points of
elementary study in the art of reading
music, that it cannot be practiced too
much. 83

Anything in such a classic form merits an appreciative

remark;

We are glad to see something in the
truest form of composition mingled.w1th
the musical student's very first ideas
and habits. 8“

“9229-. III. 153.
81232221.” III. 153.
8?;ygg., III, 153.
83.1229” III. 153.
84Ihig., III, 153.

Going into the system which Mr. Meignen employs

in his S stem, Dwight continues,

Mr. Meignen drOps the American absurdity

of changing the application of the Sol-Fa
with every change of key. In his
explanation of the minor scale, however,

he gives only one of the several forms,

and that by no means the most philosOphical
one. It makes pleasanter melody, no doubt,
to make both Sixth and Seventh sharp ascending,
and natural descending- but the laws of
harmony evidently Justify only the sharp
Seventh in both cases, with a long interval
between it and the Sixth. 8

Very few compositions or theoretical treatises escaped
the interest and comment of J. S. Dwight in his musical
reviews. Another volume of songs published about this same
time, called New Collections of Psalmogy'was criticized by
him. Concerning these he says,

So far as they go, they indicate a degree
of musical culture which would have been
deemed extraordinary here only a few
years ago. And we doubt not, choirs who
will practice, and congregations who
will listen to this music, will find the
average taste among them not a little
raised; and realize more of the true
influence of church.music, than commonly
could be expected from the plain and
barren,82hough with.us, mostxnpular form
or it.

Here again, New England taste is deplored as so many
times in these reviews. And then, in a rather ranting vein,
he says, I

Ingenuity is puzzled to find names for

so numerous a progeny. The names of
saints, of great men, of notable

85Ibid., III, 153.
86Ibig., III, 230.

old places, had long been exhausted,
before gazetteers and directories at
large were researched for every sort

of uncouth name of town or person
wherewith to christen a new psalm—tune.
Into this book an altogether new and
lovlier company are introduced; the
graceful names of all the flowers.
There is some sentimgnt in this,besides
a review on botany. 7

Somehow this last paragraph appears to be heavily

sarcastic -.. and no doubt with good reason, for Dwight was

a perfectionist and faint approximations came in for their

Just reward‘

Of a song of which he wished to Judge in a manner

acceptable to both the publisher and the reader, he writes,

This song will, no doubt, be welcome
to any pair of sister voices, who
wish for something elegggt, inspiring,
and not too difficult.

Wishing to be fair and also encourage sales for the

publisher, he says,

Whatever Donizetti and his tribe may
lack, they have always beauty, always

a graceful flow of melody; and such
music will reign in concert room and
parlor, until the national sentiment

and character are deepened altogether.89

or some more pOpular type compositions published in

America and written by an American, Dwight tosses a little

bouquet of recommendation by saying, ”Tyrolian airs, as like

each other as they are, seem always fresh. They constitute

87Ibid., III, 230.
Ibid., II, 91.
89Ibid., II, 91.

-70..

I1

1‘

one of the cardinal forms of melody".90 And, finally,
in speaking of his composition evaluations, here is a
typical statement designed to placate the composer,

assuage the publisher and to vindicate his own sensitive

conscience;

There is a certain simplicity and
pathos in it (Dempster's composition)
which suits those who could not enJoy
more, and a vein of melody which
preserves its constancy throughout.

So too of Russell, another contemporary
American composer, you always know
where to find him- which to critic
saves much concert going.

9°Ihia., II, 91.
911hid., II, 91.

..71-

5.
EXHORTATION

The word exhortation used in connection with
J. S. Dwight's musical reviews takes on special significance.
The word exhortation is peculiarly a re as, for, Webster
tells us it means the ”act of inciting to laudable deeds;
language intended to incite and encourage". This is
exactly the import of Dwight's writings. A measurement of
the influence exerted by this remarkable man and critic
will probably never be possible. However, inasmuch as his
ministry in the field of music extended over a period of
about half a century, and constantly and persistently in
the cause of the best and highest, it is safe to assume
that his influence was the greatest single musical factor
in America at that time. Dwight set out to amass a
fortune - - a fortune in incalculable treasures of
musical ideals. Boston received freely from this donor
during his lifetime, and became heir to a rich inheritance
when his mission was completed.

The period around 18h5 saw America involved in a
dispute with Mexico which culminated in war. National
tensions and attitudes were reflected in types of programs
presented; but to Dwight, music should never reflect the
lower passions. When the Boston Academy of Music gave

its first concert for the season in 18#6, it was

-72-

2
”rich and clean and penetrating"? He had "seldom

heard an orchestra with so fine a voice: 93 Yes, "The
selection of music on this occasion was certainly a rich
one“; p53, says he, "there was a little too much of the
warlike for our taste“.9u

Not only here, but elsewhere Dwight indicates
himself to be a pacifist. Continues he,

We allude to the first piece, a grand
thing in its way, the Overtue Guerriere,
by Lindpainter, containing a battle
piece; and to Donnizetti's Overture to
La F1116 du Regiment, which is also
warlike and full of the fall of drums.
In times like these, when a nation has
gone mad.with the old fever of conquest,
' and the demoralizing process has begun
of attuning the popular sentiment to
false and barbarous excitement, and
blunting the sensibilities to tales and
scenes of blood and horror; when there
is no good thing to be heped from
government or the press, it certainly
is desirable that music should not
prostitue its divine faculties to the
same base uses. Let it not lend itself
to_the false work of nourishing the
brutal passions, however they may shield
themselves under the name of an unprincipled
patriotism. 95

A pacifist in the extreme, pleading of the cause of
universal harmony, Dwight cries,

Compared with our boasts of civilized
refinements and high moral culture, the
time should have already come when it
should be disreputable for a man to hold
military office; when he should lose
caste by it, far more than if he became a

921bid., III, 381.
93Ibid., III, 381.
9“Ibid., III, 381.

95Ibid., III, 381.

constable or common hangman. And
martial music should be odious to our
ears except so far as its tone of
triumph may be dis_sociated from war,
and regarded as the eXpression of
nobler passions than those war gag
nuture now. Indeed these "battlepieces'
are the—Eheapest sort of music and no
great composer should descend to them.
Beethoven tried it once in his
“Victoria Symphony“, which is his

only failure. But Beethoven's music is
nearly all expressive of great moral
struggle, of the everlasting warfare
between darkness and light. This,
however, has a meaning for the soul,
and makes us greater while we listen.
Not so with your ”battlepieces", which
would awaken an imagination for the
mere animal excitement. 9

War, selfishness, and “mere animal excitement" should
yield to the higher impulses of the soul, and.music should
minister to its salvation. It was the glory of German music
that Ihaving scaled the heights of art, it is still a child,
true, warm hearted, generous, and trusting”.97 Songs from
Germany “haunt the soul as strangely. . . associate
themselves as readily and permanently with our feelings and
seem as much a part of the household treasures of humanity
. . . as if they were of as antique and obscure as origin
as any old Scotch songs or oldest Christian chants; the
same simplicity, with all the fullness of modern art to
boot”. 98 An yet, “we weary of the bluest sky which
breeds no clouds".99 Philosophizing further he says,

96;g;g., III, 381.
97;g;g., I, 26.
98Ihgg., I, 26.
99%., I, 26.

-74-

Choral

These are not prosaic times. This is
not the reI_— of literal reason. In
such a transition period as this,
amid the symptoms of such a mighty
revolution; when every day is a
surprise and a miracle even to the
unimaginative; when through the
yawning cracks of the old gigantic walls
of the past, flashes ever and anon in
dazzling contrast, the light of the
eternal morning, scaring away old forms
of selfishness and evil, like limping
demons of darkness; - - in such an age,
are not this music and this marvelous
vein fast yielding us an explanation?
Do we not see how prOphetic is all true
music? and that the airs from the
coming Era are first felt by those
finely organized natures, creeping over
all the harpstrings of their sould,
murmuring and whispering such music a
riddle even to themselves, which they
write out?

In a passivistic vein, in speaking of Beethoven's
Symphony, Dwight says,

Give us the privilege to celebrate the
things which make for peace and progress
without fear of their growing old. A
triumph of Art in our land of money-makers
is morally entitled to be ranked among

such things. Hours spent with multitudes
enJoying the grand works of music, are hours
of which conscience never accuses us.

Further, philosOphizing in this vein, Dwight urges

that although America's serious business is money making it

should be pursuit of higher pleasures such as enJoying the

art of

Beethoven and Mozart. Beethoven's music (Symphony

number nine) is “the music of the high hour of Human

100

Ibid., 1, 26.
101Ibid., III, 9.

-75-

Brotherhood, the triumph of the grand.unitary sentiment,
into which all the passions and interests of all human
hearts are destined finally to blend". 102‘ Losing himself
in the exaltation of the moment Dwight continues,

No words can describe the grandeur with
which all of this is worked up, till it
becomes perfectly stupendous towards

the close. Nothing but the grandest
thought which yet has visited the human
mind is adequate to the explanationof

such music, nothing but the faith which
sees the languages of discord and misery,
Humanity's wintry transition time,
completed in the Joy of perfect Unity and
Love; nothing but that profound acquaintance
with the human heart which reads in men's
conflicting passions the elements of a
future glorious Harmony; nothing but
religiousr reverence for attraction and for
Joy, the ”main spring of Creation“, (as
Schiller has it) can enter into communion
with such music, or guess wth man should
be inspired to write such.l

Exhortation for peace and harmony, the end to be sought
through music of the masters, is the burden of much of Dwight's
reviews, Music structure finds a parallel in life for,

To the struggling impatient Seventh note
Beethoven has been more than once compared;
it cries out to be resolved intoa

crowning octave, the completion of the
melodic circle, Just so his boundless
yearning and aspiring tell of a glorious
"resolution” such as men have heard
promised in that Gospel they revere,but
hitherto have heard only with their ears,
and read only with their eyes. 10“

102

Ibid., III, 11.
103

Ibid., III, ll.

10“
Ibid., III, 11.

-76”

Dwight felt that music had the power to change
the individual. In speaking of Mendelssohn's
Songs withouthords, this sentiment is urged in the following,

Refined and delicate as they are, deep
and intellectual and even.mystical in
tone, and utterly without the "taking“
qualities of more popular and brilliant
things, they would not fail to grow
upon one's liking, and insensibly . . .
refine and exalt his whole life,musical
and moral. 10

"Inciting to laudable deeds" is truly descriptive of
Dwight's efforts throughout his life for the Harvard
Musical Association, of which he was a charter member.
Universities were not then blessed with departments of music
where a talented and interested student might secure a
formal musical education. It was only through the persistent
and consistent efforts of selfless men of vision that such
dreams became realities and today are accepted as ordinary
affairs. A hundred years ago, the status of music in this
country was far different. In presenting an address of
C. P. Cranch to his readers through his musical reviews
we read of dreams still in embryo.

Its (Cranch's address) doctrines are so

true, its spirit so exalted and so pure,

its feeling of music so profound and

genuine, that it would be read with

profit and delight by everyone,whose

experience has given him the slightest

suspicion of the depths of mystic meaning

which underlie the sphere of tones.

Feeling it is our duty to circulate such
views, as far as in us lies, we have

l°5Ibia., III, 18.

”77-;

concluded to present the whole of this
address to our readers.106

What of this Harvard.Musical Association? Was it
then so vital in Boston's and New England's musical history?

The Harvard Musical association was

formed some five or six years since,

by those graduate of Harvard College

who had.musical remembrance of their

Alma Mater and one another. Its

obJects were, first, to enJoy a

musical reunion among other festivities

of the annual commencement, secondly,

to accumulate a fund to be applied at

some future day to a musical professorship
in the college and thereby procure an
academic sanction to the indispensableness
of this beautiful art as a branch of
education; and thirdly, and generally to
elevate the taste for music in our land,
by making it an avowed and corporate.
interest of men of intelligence and
education, by attaching respectability

to the musical profession, equal to that
enJoyed by any literary profession,by
collecting libraries, establishing schoos,
concerts, critical reviews, etc....
Whether our ancient university are
destined to become centers of musical
taste and science- whether it is still
reasonable to look to colleges for what

is due to Humanity and.Art, whose cause

is one, and whether the musical enthusiasm
of these gentlemen gainsay any awakening
in, life or any length of lever, from this
marriage of their music with the esfirit 95
corps of a college; are questions w c we
shall not step to discuss at present. We
are interested in every effort which is
made for the deepening and purifying and
informing of the general taste for masic.1°7

Dwight was 2 pioneer, a voice crying in the wilderness,

"Behold! the kingdom of music is at hand". And urgently he

1061bid., II, 88.
l°7Ihid., II, 88.

~78-

U

exhorts those around him to listen and hear; to arouse
themselves and lend a hand to the highest cause of music,

the cause of universal harmony.

-79.-

6.
SUMMARY

A view of the literary personalities and events
during the life span of John 3. Dwight is breathtaking.
Ralph W. Emerson and David Henry Thoreau, surrounded by
many other brilliant names, created an immortal
literature, and by their thoughts influenced the path of
history. These transcendentalists were not mere
contemporaries of Dwight; they were his close friends and
neighbors, with whom he visited, dined and planned.
Together, one goal was sought; the universal uplift of
man. Each contributor to the common end.was important,
for only through united effort over a long period of time
can any great good be effected. It is not every man's
privilege to see his dreams come to fruition; to realize
that through his own.patient cultivation of an almost
hapeless ideal, the world had become richer. But, it was
so with Dwight.

Never a self-seeker, always a generous friend to
those whom he considered worthy, beloved by many, and
esteemed by all, John S. Dwight stands as an important
man of his time.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
I
GENERAL

Christy, Arthur. The Orient in American Transcendentalism.
Columbia Press, NewIYork, 1935.

Cooke, George Willis. Early Letters of George Wm. Curtis to
John S. Dwight. New York, 1898.

Cooke, George Willis. John Sullivan Dwight. Small, Maynard
and Company, Boston, I898.

Cooke, George Willis. The Poets of Transcendentalism.
Houghton, Mifflin and Company, New or , 190 .

Dobson, Eleanor Robinette. "John Sullivan Dwight”. D.A.B.

Frothingham, Octavius Brooks. Transcendentalism in New England.
G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1876.

Goddard, Harold Clarke. Studies in New England Transcendentalism.
Columbia Press, New York, 1908.

Gohdes, Clarence L. The*§eriodicals of American Transcendentalism.
Duke University Press, Durham, North CaroIIna, 1931.

Swift, Lindsay. Brook Farm. Macmillan Company, New York, 1900.

-81...

II
DWIGHT'S MUSICAL REVIEWS IN THE HARRINGER

"Introductory", I, 12.

"Gems of German Song“, I, 26.

"Ole Bull's Concert”, I, nu.

"Harvard Musical Association's Chamber Concerts", I, 123.
"Boston Academy Concerts”, I, 139.

"Reed's Publications", I, lhl, 173, 398.

"Boston Academy, Beethoven's Symphonies“, I, 154, 188.
"Teacher's Convention in Boston for 1845”, I, 236.

"Johnson's Musical Class Book, Bertini's XXV Etudes,
Telford's Songs", I, 264.

"Music in Boston, Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony”, 1,329.
"Ditson's Publications”, I, 348.

"Norma in Boston“, I, 398.

”The Virtuoso Age in Music”, I, 362, 378.

"Leapold De Meyer”, II, 39.

“Festival Concert in New York, and Beethoven's Choral
Symphony”, III, 9.

"Father Heinrich in Boston", III, 58.

"Ditson's Publications", III, 76.

"Reed's Publications“, III, 190,219, 395.

"Cantus Ecclesiae', III, 152.

"Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words“, III, 218, 231.
"Musical Conventions", III, 219.

"New Collections of Psalmody", III, 230.

.83-

"Godfrey Weber on Musical Composition", III, 266.
"Prospects for the Season", III, 301.

"Warner's Class Books", III, 317.

"Camilla Sivori', III, 363, 379.

”Henri Herz", III, 365.

"Boston Academy of Music", III, 381.

"Chamber Concerts of Harvard Musical Association", III, 39h.
“Henri Herz in Boston”, IV, #2.

"Boston Academy of Music", IV, 123.

'Harvard.Musical Association", IV, 123.

“The Mozart Collection of Sacred.Music", IV, 123.

"Boston Philharmonic Society", IV, 185.

"Boston Academy of Music”, IV, 186.

"Mr. Edward L. Walker", IV, 187.

"Music in Boston", IV, 251.

I'The Italian Opera in New York”, IV, 294.

“More Chamber Concerts in Boston", IV, 295.

"The Italian Opera in Boston - Verdi's 'Ernani'", IV, 331.
"The Italian Opera in Boston. First Week”, IV, 396.
"Second Week of the Opera in Boston - Pacini's 'Saffo'",Iv,36J
"The Opera Again in Boston - First Week', V, 267.

"Musical Fund Society“, V, 268.

”Italian Opera in Boston — Second Week", V, 299.

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